Tag: Plug-in Electric Vehicle

What’s Holding Back Electric-Car Sales?

Electric cars aren’t selling nearly as well as many predicted. Why is that? Research suggests a host of reasons—including a basic lack of familiarity, a high price tag, misconceptions about the cars—and ineffective government incentives. Other research turned up similar findings. Some 71% of drivers in a study by the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis, said they were much more likely to buy an electric car after they test-drove all-electric Mini Coopers.

‘Flood’ of used EV batteries could help California store more renewable energy — study

Used batteries from plug-in electric vehicles could help California meet its goals for energy storage, a report from the University of California, Los Angeles, and UC Berkeley law schools said. Anthony Eggert, executive director of the Policy Institute for Energy, Environment and the Economy at UC Davis, said that the idea of using refurbished EV batteries has merit. It will come down to the economics, he said. Battery prices are expected to drop in the future, he said, and used EV batteries will be competing with new batteries. To figure out whether the EV batteries are cost-competitive, he said, “you have to look at the future costs of batteries, not the current cost of batteries.”